Afghan officials mainly saw the visit focus on Karzai’s quest to acquire Indian weapons.
Certainly not a master at fomenting strategic alliances and maintaining relationships, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been taking heat for failing to balance his country’s relations between India and Pakistan, especially after his two-day visit (May 20 to 21) to New Delhi.
Afghan officials mainly saw the visit focus on Karzai’s quest to acquire Indian weapons. He failed to muster much attention as his trip coincided with that of Chinese premier Li Keqiang’s with the Indians more interested in entertaining the latter than paying heed to Karzai and his ‘wish list’. This was the Afghan premier’s second visit to India in six months.
Although President Karzai traditionally speaks to reporters after returning from foreign trips, he has remained tight-lipped regarding his time in India. Some Indian media outlets on the other hand reported Karzai left India “empty-handed.”
Karzai could not have picked a worse time to embark to India with a wish list, considering he had not been promised anything beforehand. Some Afghan lawmakers, analysts and parts of the media concurred. The president’s spokesman confirmed the Indian government had made no concrete commitments to provide lethal weapons, but added New Delhi “will elaborate on Afghanistan’s requests.”
Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Akbaruddin was reported as saying his country is ready to discuss issues pertaining to providing military support to Afghanistan.
“We will discuss all related issues based on the strategic cooperation agreement,” said Akbaruddin. “Currently, the most important programmes for Afghanistan are aimed at helping the economic sector develop. However, we will not ignore the political and security issues of Afghanistan.” Besides making these comments, the spokesperson did not directly mention an official response to Karzai’s requests.
Afghans remain divided over how their country should form and maintain alliances with neighbouring countries. Some favour strong ties with India, while others caution seeking weapons from New Delhi may harm relations with Islamabad.
Former Afghan defence minister Shahnawaz Tanai says Karzai can attempt to pursue stronger ties with India, but he must be careful of not overstepping and affecting Afghanistan’s relationship with Pakistan.
“These are very delicate and sensitive issues and Karzai must be aware of them,” Tanai told The Express Tribune.
Tanai, who now heads the anti-war group, Afghan Peace Movement, suggested India’s relations with Afghanistan should be based on goodwill and in no way negatively affect relations with Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Afghan daily Mandegar held Karzai responsible for tense relations between Afghanistan, Pakistan and India in the region.
“Because of his behaviour, he (Karzai) has lost control of the balance between these two long-standing enemies and as a result, has made Afghanistan the theatre for a proxy war between India and Pakistan,” the daily stated on May 22 in an article titled ‘Karzai’s suspicious behaviour and Pakistan’s anger’.
Former Afghan minister and writer, Dr Farouq Azam, said Karzai must not ask neighbouring countries for military support.
“He (Karzai) does not need to ask India and Turkey, who support ethnic minorities, for military equipment and training of Afghan soldiers. Afghanistan should learn from the bitter memories of the past when similar treaties were signed,” he said, referring to the Soviet invasion in 1979.
The destinies of Afghanistan and Pakistan are intertwined and both countries will be the ultimate losers in the endgame, Azam claimed.
Political commentator Faizullah Jalal said in a TV debate that one of Karzai’s objectives in India was to win New Delhi’s support to help him in the presidential elections.
Another commentator, Abdul Ghafar Ikhlas, told a private channel Ayna that Karzai’s visit to India was “an emotional reaction” given the tensions between Kabul and Islamabad.
English daily The Indian Express claimed, “Afghanistan wants India to engage more deeply with their country. They want increased development cooperation, further investment in the Afghan economy, and military hardware for their armed forces. India has already worked on fulfilling some of these requests, including investing significant resources in building Iran’s Chabahar port and linking it to Afghanistan by rail.”
Published in The Express Tribune, May 25th, 2013.
COMMENTS (2)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
Im sure the fear of harming relations with Islamabad 'here', are reciprocated as fear of more suicide attacks in Afghanistan.... 'there'
Pro government media or media outlets loyal to panjsheri warlords are saying visit was a success and calling for outright tilt towards India. The reality is that Karzai is deliberately whipping up xenphobia over border issue among afghans for following reasons
to silence his political opposition since immediately after the skirmishes pro govt media started questioning the patriotism of Karzai's opponents i.e.Dr. Abdullah, Karim Khalili and Wali Masood.
to divert attention from his misereable failure in governance.Crticisim and discontent is growing and brother Karzai has nothing to show for other than Afghanistan is the biggest producer of opium.
to extract more concession and justify indian military aid in defending the border. (enemy of enemy is my friend)
to scuttle pakistan's role in recociliation process since Indians were not happy that Pakistan was in driving seat while Indians cant even participate.
to make bilateral security agreement with US more acceptable to skeptical afghan public. Karzai declared that Afghanistan would give american soldiers immunity if they side with Afghanistan in border dispute.